Expectations for the Chicago Bears are optimistic this year. Many experts feel GM Ryan Poles has done a great job setting the team up for success going into 2024. He’s rebuilt the defense into a respectable unit again. Now, he has added a blue-chip quarterback prospect in Caleb Williams and surrounded him with a bevy of weapons like D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen, Rome Odunze, and Cole Kmet. If this roster clicks like it’s supposed to, the Bears can make the playoffs for only the third time in the past 14 years.
Nick Wright of Fox Sports wasn’t satisfied with that. He talked about the Bears on First Things First, making some key points as to why they not only will make the playoffs but get all the way to the Super Bowl.
Some people may call him insane, but the logic isn’t unreasonable. The first half of Chicago’s schedule this season features teams that were bad-to-terrible in 2023. It seems unlikely that all of them would magically transform into good in one year. It is a slate that could get the Bears off to a fast start, which is often crucial to reaching the postseason.
The 1985 team won their first 12 games. In 2006, they won nine of their first ten. Hot starts are essential to this franchise, and the schedule gives the exact road map to get there. Then Wright mentions the fact that rookie quarterbacks going deep into the playoffs isn’t a rare thing anymore. It has happened quite a bit since the turn of the millennium. Ben Roethlisberger reached the AFC championship in 2004. Joe Flacco did the same in 2008, as did Mark Sanchez in 2009. Brock Purdy went in 2022. Russell Wilson and C.J. Stroud both won a playoff game.
Thinking Caleb Williams, a #1 overall pick, is incapable of reaching the Super Bowl isn’t taking history into account. That is especially true when you consider he has one of the best rosters around him that a #1 pick has ever had. If the receivers play up to their massive potential and the defense remains good, this team will be one nobody wants to play in January. Wright is known for firing some hottakes in his career. While this one isn’t the craziest, it would certainly break the internet if it came true.
